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Drying my relaxed hair

The eternal question of how best to dry our hair, huh?

Before starting my hair journey (and before that...before I wore braids for a couple of years), I used to dry my hair with my faithful Babyliss Beliss dryer after every single shampoo. It gave me beautiful, sleek, healthy hair each time. Or at least it gave me the illusion of nice healthy hair, but I didn't know that then!

Since 2010, I have tried to cut back on direct heat on my hair: I invested in a Hooded Dryer (also for my hair treatments) and have almost stopped using blow dryers. The difficult thing was to manage to get a sleek effect on my hair without direct heat. Erm...not easy!

I tried roller setting, but I realised after a few attempts that except taking up my entire Sundays, it wasn't doing much for the sleek, flowy effect. It also killed my arms. Maybe one day, I will give it another go...

One day I thought: "I don't have anywhere to go today so it won't matter if my hair is not super straight!". And that's how my Air Drying Journey started :-)

I've tried different methods in the last two years and I think I have found a good one now. So here it is:

Did my pre-poo with Black Jamaican Castor Oil the night before

Rinsed the oil the next morning and co-washed with V05 Give Me Moisture Conditioner

I sprayed Aphogee Provitamin Leave-In

Detangled + put in a loose bun + satin scarf to smooth my edges

Once about 95% dry (I still had a tiny spot at the back of my head which was wet), I moisturised and sealed with HE Long Term Relationship and Coconut Oil (one section at a time)

I made some big, loose Bantu Knots

A few hours later (I had a nap, had a terrible migraine on that day), I took down the Bantu Knots

And...VOILA! Actually it would have looked better on my almost BSL hair lol

After that I put my hair in a loose bun as I am still protecting my ends

click on image to enlarge

click on image to enlarge

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I used to Moisturise & Seal when my hair was still about 50% wet and then let it dry completely, but I realised my hair prefer when I don't apply anything on it until it is almost fully dry.

The problem with me I think was that if I applied products while the hair was still wet, I could not really realise how much I applied. Then my hair would be weighed down by either too much product or too much oil. So I think I am going to stick to this method for a little while.